The Hiatus

Phish took a 26-month hiatus that began after their 10/7/00 show at Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA, and ended 815 days later with their return New Year's show 12/31/02.

In Las Vegas 9/30/00, Trey explained that the band would take first extended hiatus after that fall tour. They had been playing together for 17 years and wanted to take a break to write new music and relax so they could have another 17 years. As the New York Times reported immediately (10/10/00), "Phish has not broken up for good, the band's management says. But it is breaking up for a while.... No concerts are booked, no albums are scheduled, and band members plan to go their separate ways. 'The plan,' said the group's spokeswoman, 'is that there is no plan.'"

Initially announced as being of "unknown duration," it was known only that there would be no full-band tours in 2001 (venues were reportedly sent a flyer saying not to even ask) and perhaps not in 2002, although there were persistent rumors that something one-off might happen, such as a Halloween show or perhaps New Year's in Big Cypress.

The haitus ended (as CNN noted) "less than two weeks after the surviving members of the Grateful Dead, the granddaddy of all jam bands, reunited in East Troy, Wisconsin, for their first concert in seven years."

"We don't know how long because we're trying to leave it unplanned. But, whenever the band gets together, which isn't too often right now, there's a good vibe. There's a lot of excitement about doing stuff together, you know, ideas flowing for the future, ideas of making music. So, sometime. I don't know when." -- Mike Gordon, quoted by Geoff Carr in the 1/17/01 Flagpole

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The Mockingbird Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Phish fans in 1996 to generate charitable proceeds from the Phish community.

And since we're entirely volunteer – with no office, salaries, or paid staff – administrative costs are less than 2% of revenues! So far, we've distributed over $1,000,000 to support music education for children – hundreds of grants in all 50 states, with more on the way.